Our new publication looks at the distribution of tree-covered areas in urban zones: 

• E.R. Hernandez, P.B. Sy, M. Cirunay, and R. Batac, Power-law distributions of urban tree cover. Accepted for publication in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications (2024). 

Using image processing of satellite images, we recovered the patches of trees over Metro Manila, an urban metropolis with the highest population density in the world. The statistics of these areas show power-laws with decaying exponents close to 2. The power-law tails of the distributions are robust for the 17 cities within Metro Manila. Similar exponents were also obtained for other capital cities in southeast Asia. This statistical regularity hints at self-organized criticality (SOC) at work in these systems.

Incidentally, previous research works show that the area distributions of man-made structures in the urban zone show power-law scaling with similar exponents. This suggests that tree coverage in cities is mainly governed by anthropogenic influences while still manifesting SOC. 

Edward Russel Hernandez is a Master of Science in Physics student working as a student researcher in the Complex Systems Group. Patricia Breanne Sy just finished her BS Physics degree, also under the Complex Systems Group. Dr. Michelle Cirunay is an expert on urban complexity, especially in the Metro Manila region. Dr. Rene Batac has worked on complex systems in nature and society, using mathematical models and simulations.